Finished goal of running the distance of 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C and back!!!...plus 339.1 miles


0.0 miles run this week.
Daily running average for the week is 0.00 miles per day.
Total amount run in the past 800 days is 2,419.1 miles.
Daily running average overall is 3.02 miles per day.

Day358 Monday 08/22/11

ran 3.0 miles
From thehill.com, “Dozens of Wall Street executives who supported President Obama in 2008 have donated to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign this year.”

In an article by Jake Interrante and Bob Cusack, they share a review of fundraising data, which shows that sixty-seven people who work in the financial sector and had contributed to Obama in 2008 are now giving their money to Mitt Romney. This is not earth-shattering news but it is worth noting.

Jumping ship comes in the wake of Obama’s bullying rhetoric on Wall Street, notably when our president was pushing for what is known as the “Dodd-Frank financial reform law”.

These sixty-seven flip-floppers are employed by a large number of banks, private equity firms and hedge-fund companies, including Credit Suisse, The Blackstone Group, Stanwich Group and Goldman Sachs.

“One of the donors is Joshua Harris of Apollo Management, who recently bought the Philadelphia 76ers. Others include Oscar Schafer of OSS Capital Management, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Barry Sternlight with the Starwood Capital Group and David Blitzer of the Blackstone Group.”

What else? The FCC finally gave up on the “Fairness Doctrine”, which is actually the exact opposite of what it implies. It is censorship and it is a shame that it took this long to abandon. On a separate note, our president skipped his eighth hole on the golf course today because cameras were waiting for him. I have to wonder if he would have welcomed some camera time if he were not so consumed with failure. Don’t mistake his avoidance of the media for modesty. If the vision he had for this country were successful or, in other words, if he had achieved cramming his ideas down our throats and had not mistakenly under-estimated the intelligence of the people who, one by one, form the fabric of this country and their ability to speak out when the government is failing, he would have been hamming it up. Oh, and Morgan Freeman wants Obama to “get pissed off”. He feels he has been “horribly sandbagged” and it makes him “so angry”. Thank you for that, Mr. Freeman.

1,018.1 miles to go.

Day357 Sunday 08/21/11

ran 2.7 miles
Today ends week fifty-one of running against Obama. I ran 20.4 miles this week, averaging 2.91 miles per day. Sorry for the short post today, catch up tomorrow!

1,021.1 miles to go.

Day356 Saturday 08/20/11

ran 2.6 miles
I am getting close to reaching one year of running against Obama. Today is the day that one year ago I decided I was going to take on this campaign until November 6, 2012. This idea had struck me in a McDonald’s drive through in Lafayette. My wife was driving and we were talking about how helpless we felt as people under a presidential administration and a congress we disagreed so much with.

At this time, Obamacare and the stimulus package were still fresh in our minds. At this time our president was saying things to the effect of “if Republicans want to get on the bus they can get on but they will have to sit in the back”. Now this man is basically campaigning on how partisan and unfair Republicans are. He will be campaigning on blame after such arrogant comments like the one cited above.

This campaign started as a result of getting so fed up and tired of hearing so many people complain about the same things in Washington going on every day. And every time someone finished their rant or tirade, red in the face, sweating and panting, they would throw their hands up in the air and say something like “But what can you do about it?”

This was when the idea hit me. If this guy does end up getting elected again, which is somehow quite possible, I want to contribute something, anything I can, to make Barack Obama a one-term president. By continuing to run these miles and to post on this blog every day I feel that if he does get reelected and my children or grandchildren one day ask me, “How did things get to this point? Why was I born into such debt that I did not ask for? Why didn’t you do anything about it? How could you and so many others let America get to this point?”---if they ever ask me questions like these I simply want to be able to tell them I did try.

So there it is.

1,023.8 miles to go.

Day355 Friday 08/19/11

"Both the stock market and President Obama's poll numbers are tanking..."
John Zogby

ran 1.9 miles

Some stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:
  • Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 21% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 41% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -20.
  • Overall, 45% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance and 53% at least somewhat disapprove.
  • Only 53% of homeowners believe their home is worth more than they paid for it.
  • Among Republican primary voters, 58% think the Tea Party will help the GOP in 2012. Only 22% believe it will hurt.
  • Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 44%, Democrats 37%
  • GOP Primary: Perry 29%, Romney 18%, Bachmann 13%
1,026.4 miles to go.

Day354 Thursday 08/18/11

ran 2.6 miles
Sorry for the late post. A storm hit us last night and knocked out electricity for the night, right up until the moment I closed my eyes to go to bed. Random lights and electronics all suddenly turned on after having waited four or five hours. Insult to injury. Here’s getting back on track.

President Obama demanded Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down from power today. Assad has been attacking and killing his own people who protest his leadership and Obama, as well as, many other countries are demanding Assad relieve himself from power and implement a democratic approach to their government. After addressing this and a few other highly critical international and domestic problems, our president promptly packed his bags for ten days at Martha’s Vineyards.

In the real world, where real people live and work and do real things, giving Assad an ultimatum to step down as Obama closes the door of his car to head out to a ten day vacation would be like you or me telling our boss how bad we think he is at his job, telling him or her that you or I could do the job better, and then putting on a pleasant smile and saying, “By the way, I’m going to go to Florida for the next week and a half. Thanks.” This approach lacks all sense of urgency and cannot be taken seriously.

On a lighter note, here are some facts about the state of Rhode Island:
  • Rhode Island was the thirteenth state to join the union on May 29, 1790, one year before Vermont and one year after North Carolina.
  • Population, as of 2010, is 1,052,567.
  • Senators are Jack Reed (D) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D).
  • Representatives are David Cicilline (D) and James Langevin (D).
  • Rhode Island has four electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted blue since 1928, except for four presidential elections (twice for Eisenhower and once for Nixon and Reagan). Obama defeated McCain by nearly 28% in 2008.
1,028.3 miles to go.

Day353 Wednesday 08/17/11

ran 3.4 miles
Chapter19
Torture. Humiliation. Atonement. Recantation. Dissolution. Death.

Now for ten years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the jester sang for the King and Queen,
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me…

Jonas opened his left eye as much as the swelling would allow him. His right eye was matted shut with bruising and blood. He grinned, painfully, for the simple sake of defying the guard who was watching him in his cell. The guard took no notice. He couldn’t. Jonas’ face was too bludgeoned to identify any facial expressions.

Oh, and while the King was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown.
The courtroom was adjourned;
No verdict was returned.
And while Lenin read a book on Marx,
The quartet practiced in the park,
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died.

Erica stood in a cell with her hands gripping the bars before her. She thought of Thomas and Mason, how easily they were disposed of. They were treated like hunted serial killers or fugitive terrorists. “How?” she had thought to herself, “Could millions upon millions of people in this forgotten country sit so quietly and idly over the loss of America. The sacrifices people like Thomas and Mason had made affected hundreds of millions of lives in what used to be America. Nobody cares. Nobody cares.”

She said it again out loud this time “Nobody cares. Nobody cares.”

“Nobody cares!”

Everything was quiet again. The guard struck Erica with the butt of his rifle through the bars of her cell. She fell back and slammed the rear of her head into a concrete and urine slab of sleep. North Americanadexico was now a step closer to scaring all of its people to sleep.

We were singing,
“Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And singin’, “This’ll be the day that I die.”
“This’ll be the day that I die.”

1,030.9 miles to go.

Day352 Tuesday 08/16/11

ran 3.6 miles
Two buses that each cost over one million dollars. A tour with nothing to offer and no ideas to captivate the Americans he is talking to. We are all essentially paying with tax dollars for what has been deemed a “magical misery tour” of two buses with nothing to sell but blame.

But this video makes it all worth it. These two Tea Party members who question Obama about toning down rhetoric and ask why Joe Biden called them and so many others like them “terrorists” could not have been more perfect. Our president was stuck in a spot no president ever wants to be in. He was confronted with a perfectly sensible question that demanded an honest answer. This is not a strong point for presidents, sensibility and honesty.

A camera was behind him and these two individuals were inescapably right in front of him, so he had to say something. One of his explanations was that Joe Biden did not say those words, which was a lie. It was not even a stretched truth and there is no gray area for interpretation. Biden did say it.

By the end of this thing, Obama uttered his most memorable words of this unfortunate scenario before him. “You don’t seem to be interested in listening.”

Not interested in listening to what? You, Mr. President, lost credibility in the argument when you blatantly lied about something that is undeniably true.

1,034.3 miles to go.

Day351 Monday 08/15/11

President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011, at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, during his three-day economic bus tour. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
ran 3.6 miles

Halfway to 2,080 miles!


I passed 1,040 miles tonight and that sum is half of the goal I had set for myself to run. In case you are new to this blog, on August 30, 2010, I had set a goal to run the distance from my hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana to Washington D.C. and back. That distance is 2,080 miles. I am not literally running to D.C and back, but I am running that amount of miles on the streets of Lafayette.

I am obviously running against Barack Obama because I want to be involved in the process of making him a one-term president. If he were to receive a second term I would regret not doing everything in my power to stop it, regardless of how minimal or large the message may be. Check out Day1 to see where this blog started nearly a year ago.

Thanks for keeping up with the miles and reading the posts! If you want to stay informed with this blog then click “follow” on the top of the page or you can give running against obama a “like” on facebook.

Today, Obama claimed that his economic program “reversed the recession” until “bad luck” hit.

"We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again, but over the last six months we've had a run of bad luck,” Obama said to a crowd in Decorah, Iowa today. Only the last six months? He’s blaming the Arab Spring, the tsunami in Japan, and European debt crises.

These are all heavy factors in the world economy, but then he went on to say, “The problem is that we've got the kind of partisan brinksmanship that is willing to put party ahead of country, that is more interested in seeing their political opponents lose than seeing the country win. Nowhere was that more evident than in this recent debt ceiling debacle."

The partisanship our president is talking about has its roots in the overwhelming numbers of constituents who are represented by Congress and were hired to oppose the destructive direction Obama is taking our country. While he claims parties are putting themselves ahead of the country, I would say that the Republican Congress members he is blaming are simply doing the job they campaigned on and were hired to do by the people who elected them. This isn’t selfish partisanship, it is representation of the people.

1,037.9 miles to go.

Day350 Sunday 08/14/11

ran 1.4 miles
Today ends week fifty of running against Obama. I ran 19.3 miles this week, averaging 2.76 miles per day.

I have a funny story I would like to share with you today. My wife and I started a tradition of taking my two nieces and my nephew out to lunch for their birthdays each year, followed by a trip to a toy store. Today was my nephew’s turn. His birthday was earlier in the month and he had no problem with us extending his birthday until now to take him anywhere he wanted to eat and to pick out his own birthday gift. He turned eight years old this month and he is well beyond his years in politeness, maturity, and he apparently even keeps up with political current events.

As we began backing out of the driveway my nephew was having some trouble buckling his seatbelt in the backseat. I reached back to help him and I asked him what he had gotten for his birthday, if he had a good day, you know, general birthday questions anyone might ask their eight year old nephew. As I got him buckled up and I turned back around to put the car in drive he came from out of nowhere with, “Yeah, my birthday is the same as Obama’s.”

Coincidentally, it is indeed the same day. The last thing I had expected today was for my nephew to bring up Obama. We were not exactly sure what to say so we told him that it was pretty cool to have the same birthday as a president. Then we asked him if he had learned about Barack Obama in school.

“Yeah, we learn about Obama. I don’t like him. He’s ruining the world.” These words coming out of the mouth of my eight-year-old nephew were as unexpected as they were just simply bizarre. I didn’t think children at that age held such opinions.

Obviously, my nephew was only repeating words and ideas he had heard from adults, but it was still the cutest, most unprovoked outcry against Barack Obama I have ever heard.

1,041.5 miles to go.

Day349 Saturday 08/13/11

ran 3.1 miles
Ames, Iowa has spoken and they want Bachmann. The Iowa Straw Poll, a rite of passage since 1979 for all Republican presidential candidates facing an incumbent Democrat, has been tallied and here are the numbers:

1. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (4823, 28.55%)
2. Congressman Ron Paul (4671, 27.65%)
3. Governor Tim Pawlenty (2293, 13.57%)
4. Senator Rick Santorum (1657, 9.81%)
5. Herman Cain (1456, 8.62%)
6. Governor Rick Perry (718, 3.62%) write-in
7. Governor Mitt Romney (567, 3.36%)
8. Speaker Newt Gingrich (385, 2.28%)
9. Governor Jon Huntsman (69, 0.41%)
10. Congressman Thad McCotter (35, 0.21%)

Texas Governor Rick Perry did not participate in Thursday’s Iowan debate, but he did announce his candidacy today. He did pretty well considering he threw his name in the hat only hours before the vote. Governor Mitt Romney placed a disappointing seventh behind procrastinating Rick Perry. That is surprising. Bachmann and Paul were within less than 1% of one another. I like Bachmann and Paul but we have the consent of an entire nation to deal with, not just Republicans from the state of Iowa. But it was an impressive victory, nevertheless. Pawlenty and Santorum did well but I can’t tell one from the other. I don’t feel these two guys have asserted themselves compared to others who did better or worse than them in the Iowa Straw Poll. I’m a big fan of Herman Cain and, while he did place in the top five, I had hoped he would have placed higher. Thad McCotter is the unknown candidate and Jon Huntsman is, in my opinion, a RINO. I purposely didn’t mention Newt Gingrich because he has done nothing impressive lately except for losing campaign staff members. And, in case you didn’t know, a RINO is a Republican In Name Only. There are a lot of them out there.

It will be interesting to see how this thing plays out. When November 6, 2012 arrives I will vote for a plank of wood before voting for Barack Obama. I definitely have a strong opinion of who this country needs as a president for the post-Obama era, but at the same time I firmly believe that a plank of wood could do a better job of not destroying our country than he has.

And, on a completely different note, our current president is going around encouraging Americans to call their Congressmen and women to tell them that we are tired of the lack of bipartisanship on both sides. Nice touch, Mr. President, to include both sides, but the reason there is gridlock is because Republicans and their constituents are tired of, completely exhausted by, nearly everything you do. When I call or write my members of Congress I encourage them to stand up to your agenda and to not cross the aisle. Our president has had almost three years and all he has done is spend and blame. When he says, “Call your Senators and Representatives and demand they compromise,” he is really saying, “Encourage your elected officials to let me dig this country deeper and deeper to the point of no return.”

1042.9 miles to go.

Day348 Friday 08/12/11

ran 4.7 miles
The past couple weeks have been daunting, running in this heat and humidity. My weekly running averages have been dropping as July and August have become more and more smothering. If you have never visited Louisiana, particularly the southern part of the state, the heat and humidity August blankets us with is nearly intolerable. I’m not trying to take anything away from the heat waves that have recently covered so many American states, and set so much of Texas on fire, but when the mercury hits 105 degrees in a state like Oklahoma, that is nothing compared to 95 degrees in south Louisiana. The humidity is so thick it beads up on you before you even start sweating. I have lived in Oklahoma and felt the state’s dry 100-plus degrees and it is far more tolerable than the sweltering humidity we have here at lesser temperatures. The heat indices here are off the chart.

But that’s neither here nor there. I don’t post about personal stuff too often and I thought I would rant about how unbearably hot and humid it is here. I guess what I am getting at is this: I have been physically incapable of running at the pace and distance I am used to for the other 10 or 11 months of the year. But I anticipated a lull in my running average for the summer and created a surplus of miles during the rest of the year. I have managed to stave off large losses in my running average by planning ahead, but my average has slowly been declining. By investing in a slow, patient surplus of miles ahead of time and running within my means I have created an opportunity to redistribute distances from my miles bank to keep myself afloat during these hard times. I invested in my own future and planned for any shortcomings, which may or may not have occurred in the near future of my miles balance. Unfortunately, a deficit has occurred; however, by anticipating it I have prevented panic and chaos. I did it by myself and I would never, never ask any other man or woman to give me some of their miles so that I may stay afloat with my own goal.

Redistributing miles, or money, from one party who worked so hard for what they have, to another is fundamentally wrong, petty, and something to be ashamed of. But so many in this country don't seem to find virtue in their own self-sufficiency.

If I fail to achieve my goal, any goal, I would never ask another to give me some of what they worked so hard to achieve so that I could falsely feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. If I fail at something I take stock of what lessons I learned in my journey and I find a better way to do it, or I move on to another goal.

I’m sort of trying to express through rambling about these miles I’m running how fundamentally I differ from everything Barack Obama stands for. When he says some of us are only lucky and we need to share, when he puts a cap on how much money I can earn before it is no longer worth it because it all goes to the federal government, when he mandates government health care and forces me to pay for others when I can hardly pay for myself, but I’m out there trying while so many others are not, so many others are watching day-time television all day and going to the emergency room twice a month just because they can---I fundamentally disagree with this guy. I want nothing more than for him to simply leave us alone and I don’t want any other person’s money unless I earn it.

1,046.0 miles to go.

Day347 Thursday 08/11/11

ran 2.2 miles
“You are finished in 2012, and you will be a one-term president.”

That sounds like commitment and assertion. That is putting yourself out there. That is not being coy, dodgy or comfortably floating along. But who said it?

If you watched the debate tonight then you know that was Michele Bachmann. I like her moxie and her determination. Barack Obama has that same quality except that his courage and drive has landed us…here, for lack of a better term, after nearly three years.

It’s starting. Can you hear the engine revving? It’s going to be a rollercoaster as we edge toward the one-year marker leading up to the election. Some candidates will drop out and others will emerge to the surface. We are still far off, but I cannot wait to see a debate between Barack Obama and whoever Someone Else is going to be. There is so much material to scrutinize. It hasn’t even been three years and this race will be that much more engaging in one more year from now.

Along those lines of Barack Obama being a one-term president, here is a continuation of his ever-plummeting approval numbers and polls from a growingly discontent America. Stats and polls from Rasmussen Reports:
  • Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 21% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 43% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of -22.
  • That matches the lowest Approval Index rating for the president in 2011. Forty-one percent (41%) of Democrats strongly approve while 76% of Republicans strongly disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either political party, 16% strongly approve and 43% strongly disapprove.
  • Overall, 43% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 56% disapprove.
  • Only 16% of Americans believe the country is generally heading in the right direction.
  • Among American voters 54% favor repeal of the health care law.
1,050.7 miles to go.

Day346 Wednesday 08/10/11


ran 3.9 miles

Chapter18
Did you write the book of love,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock n roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you’re in love with him
‘cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.

I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.

In a flat-black room of concrete and echoes, Jonas sat in a plain metal chair. Crimson red flakes were matted on his nose and lips. His eyebrows were pressed with blood. In front of him was a single, continuous pane of glass framed within an inescapable structure of re-bar, aggregate and cement.

“Concrete,” Jonas had thought to himself. “I must talk without talking for now.”

Jonas lifted his battered body out of his cold chair and stood. Blood was still dripping out of his left nostril. His plain white t-shirt was now red. He ran, all of a sudden, into the elongated window like an elephant attempting to head-butt a skyscraper.

The window paid no acknowledgment to his effort. Jonas froze in pain for a moment. What sense he still had left afforded him no profitable rationale.

“Tell them nothing,” he had mumbled to himself. “Tell them nothing,” he repeated over and over in his head like a hatter.

“Jonas Martin Cassidy, You have been deemed treasonous by the NorthAmeriCanaDexican Government. What have you to say?”

He had hesitated and then responded, “A bear and the pope walk into the woods…”

He had laughed to himself, further sputtering blood onto his red t-shirt. The humor and the self-defeat of the situation had put a sardonic smile on his face. “One says to the other…”

A fist came from out of nowhere shocking Jonas in his right temple sending him stumbling to his left and crashing into a wall, slowly sliding down to the floor.

“Jonas Martin Cassidy, we don’t think you understand the severity of your circumstances. Your life is in jeopardy as pertains to your actions and words. You have done nothing yet but make a fool of yourself and a mockery of everything you wrongly believe in.”

“I am guilty of nothing.“ Those words were all Jonas could utter and they were hardly audible or coherent as he was nearly unconscious and completely beaten and exhausted.

“I am guilty of being free.”

Jonas was now unconscious. Many in the room thought he may have been dead. But his mind went on quietly above the words of his interrogator.

“I only want to live. I want to be challenged. I want opportunities like the ones our old country, America, once gave everyone who sought something worth fighting for. You are the government. You are the enemy. Your deceit and destructive legislation, not for and against the people, you behind the glass, in the dark, hidden away and out of touch,…you! Ask me anything you want to know and I swear I won’t tell you!”

These words went unheard, aired only in the subconscious of Jonas’ battered and unconscious body.

“His antics will not last for long. There are others among us who would have him tortured and killed for his deviance, alone. I think we still have use for him. Clean him up and keep him alive.”

Jonas suddenly stirred with one last stroke of cognizance. “Show me your face so I can at least die knowing I beat you and your lies! Show me your face! Show me your face!”

“I pity you Jonas Martin Cassidy. You are a waste of intelligence. You chose the wrong side.” A set of black boots slowly strutted toward Jonas. Everything went black again.

I started singin’
“Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.”
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
And singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die.
This’ll be the day that I die.”

1,052.9 miles to go.

Day345 Tuesday 08/09/11

ran 1.5 miles



Blaming the Tea Party for the dismal state of our nation’s economy is not much unlike asserting that rationality and sanity, as a state of mind, should be reason enough to send anyone who uses them as contemptible enough to send those people to an asylum. The lunatics have taken over. And, as opposed to what are Tea Party backers in contempt? The destructive spending habits of our president, which would have inevitably led to more severe measures had S&P not reprimanded America’s credit rating one degree that can be earned back in the near future? S&P’s judgment was a warning and a gesture to send the message that out-of-control spending needs to stop.

1,056.8 miles to go.